The Dark Jedi
by Steiner06
Summary: Someone walked through the forest on a dark and dreary night. This someone meets a dark and mysterious person. It is not a coincidence that they are both here.


**The Dark Jedi**

By Scotty Steinmetz

It was a dark, dreary night. There was a person strolling down the trail through the forest. The person had a long traveling cloak over its clothes. It was nearly invisible because of the darkness in the forest. This person was on the planet called Kashyyyk, way out in the Outer Rim of the galaxy. The person's name was Bariss Offee. She was a Jedi that had just been knighted. She was there on very important business for the Republic. She was an ambassador, and she was sent to the planet to try to convince the reigning species to remain on the Republic's side of the war. Bariss was born and raised on the planet Coruscant, the galaxy's only planet that was an entire city. She had lived in the Jedi Temple for as long as she could remember, for she was a Jedi Padawan. She decided to stop and set up camp for the night. Bariss came across an immense cave to use for shelter. She had been traveling for a very long time and was exhausted. She dozed off after eating a quick dinner and slept for about half an hour.

Then, she suddenly sprang to her feet, any evidence of sleepiness completely gone. She had sensed something approaching her that was nothing but evil. When she saw him, she pulled out her weapon and activated it with a _snap-hiss­_. Her lightsaber cast a blue glow about her. Her opponent activated a lightsaber that cast a gloomy glow of red. The entire forest was silent with apprehension.

She had heard rumors that there was someone from the Separatists that was on the planet to try to persuade the Wookies to join with the Trade Federation. This was the first instance that she had received any real proof about it, though.

Suddenly, a rotten log, which was a small branch of the tree from which it had fallen, flew out of nowhere and was aimed straight at Bariss. When the log was close enough to Bariss that she could see the bite marks of bugs on it, she deftly swung her saber and the log fell around her, neatly cleaved into two pieces.

When the Dark Man had recovered from seeing her block his attack so deftly, he raised his hands and there was a bright flash. There was no human being that could distinguish what the flash was except for those with Force-sensitivity.

It was lightning, moving faster than the eye could follow, once again aimed straight at Bariss. She caught the lightning with her bare hand and while her hand still glowed from the energy, she returned the lightning to him, but he managed to catch it on his saber.

Then he lunged at her, trying to catch her off guard, but all he succeeded in doing was locking his saber with Bariss's. They both were pushing as hard as they could against the other, but it seemed to be a stalemate. Sparks were flying everywhere because of the power of their weapons against each other. The only sound for kilometers around was the crackling of the weapons.

The light cast on the Dark Man showed Bariss his face. It was hideous and gruesome. His face contained innumerable scars, some of which were still oozing blood they were so fresh. He was even missing an eye, his face was so hideous. The man was none other than Count Dooku himself, the leader of the Separatist Army.

Bariss was so astounded that she was fighting with the most influential person on the other side of the war, that she actually jumped back and almost allowed Dooku through her defenses. When she disengaged Dooku, he pressed his advantage and forced her against a tree. Bariss knew that there was only one thing she could do, and she wasn't sure if it would be effective. She had to try, though. Bariss performed a Force-push, and Dooku was forced back about three meters. While the separation lasted, they stood staring each other down. The expression on Dooku's face was one of immense hatred and unobstructed contempt, while Bariss retained a look of complete serenity and peace.

Then they were at each other again. Both of their weapons moved faster than the eye could move, so it appeared as if it was a bubble of light instead of two individual weapons. To the ordinary spectator, if there were one, the fight would have appeared as a sphere of light, sometimes blue and sometimes red.

They fought for hours, breaking just long enough to lunge at the other again. They both drew a tremendous amount of energy from the Force, each for their own purposes. Dooku focused on being the aggressor and he tried to be in as many places as possible at once. Bariss, on the other hand, focused on defense and drew power to sustain herself and keep her defenses absolutely infallible.

Without their knowledge, they had gained an audience. There was a humanoid species that were approximately three meters tall, covered in fur, and were extremely strong. They lived in the treetops of this planet and were called the Wookies. They were so dazed by the sphere of light that they were completely transfixed. They were whispering about it to each other, and no one knew what it was.

Then, Dooku made a mistake. Bariss parried an attack to her left hip, and she put so much strength behind the parry, Dooku's offense was blown wide open. Bariss made only one attack the whole fight, and it decided who won the fight. She opened him from right shoulder to left hip. When she did, Dooku just stood there for a couple of seconds, a look of incomprehension on his face. Then he literally fell to pieces. There wasn't much blood because a lightsaber burns so hot that it cauterizes wounds immediately upon contact.

Bariss had just won the war for the Republic by winning a single duel. She couldn't believe that the duel was over, for her hands had moved without her brain telling them to. That's what the Force does; it makes you move faster than signals can travel from the brain to other nerves. Her Force-sensitivity had slowed time; giving her the time it took to block each attack. It was all over, though. Bariss looked around at the Wookies and was frightened at first, because she didn't hear or see them come up. She smiled at them, nonetheless, because that was part of her job as an ambassador.

The duel had taken so long that at the time, it was nearly dawn. Bariss decided that her report about what had happened could wait until later, since she had eliminated the immediate threat to her mission. When she drew on the power of the Force that much for that long, it always drained her completely of energy, so she decided to get some sleep. Assuming that the Wookies would watch over her, she sat in the cave she had napped in before the duel, and fell asleep.


End file.
